Chennai, February 8 The Chennai Open ATP Challenger began promisingly for India, as nine players, led by fourth seed Nitin Kumar Sinha, advanced to the second round of qualifying matches here on Sunday.
At the SDAT Tennis Stadium in Nungambakkam, Nitin comfortably defeated his compatriot Oges Theyjo Jaya Prakash, winning 6-4, 6-1 in one hour and three minutes, while sixth seed Ishaque Eqbal dominated Carl Holder of Great Britain with a 6-2, 6-0 victory in exactly one hour.
Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta, who entered as an alternate, defeated fifth seed Grigoriy Lomakin of Kazakhstan 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, while 20-year-old left-hander Aryan Lakshmanan easily beat eighth seed Vadym Konovchuk of Ukraine 6-2, 6-1.
In the closest match of the day, twelfth seed Aditya Vishal Balsekar fought for nearly three hours before defeating fellow Indian Lohithaksha Bathrinath 7-6, 4-6, 6-4.
Tenth seed Adil Kalyanpur also won after a three-set match, defeating compatriot Atharva Sharma 7-5, 4-6, 6-1.
Third seed Timofei Derepasko avoided an upset, beating Indian wildcard Aniketh Venkataraman 6-1, 6-4.
The top two seeds in the qualifying draw – India's S.D. Prajwal Dev and Malaysia's Mitsuki Wei Kang Leong – received byes into the final round of qualifying, which will be played on Monday.
A total of 12 players will compete for six qualifying spots in the 32-player main draw of the ATP Challenger 50 event.
Great Britain's Jay Clarke is the top seed in the singles main draw, followed by Argentina's Federico Agustin Gomez, Great Britain's Oliver Crawford, and Ilia Simakin.
Seven Indian players, led by top-ranked Sumit Nagal, Karan Singh, and 18-year-old Manas Dhamne, are already in the main draw.
With four all-Indian final-round qualifying matches scheduled for Monday, India are set to have a strong presence, with the total number of Indian players in the main draw expected to rise to 11.
The tournament has a prize money of USD 63,000 (Rs 60 lakh).
